As more people use computers in the workplace, proper posture when sitting is increasingly becoming a personal and economic issue. Billions of dollars are lost each year by companies through lost productivity and health care costs due to cases of back pain caused by prolonged sitting behind computers and at factory work stations. Back pain is a leading contributor to losses in workplace productivity in the United States. According to one 2006 study, back pain was reported by 42.6% of workers surveyed, and “back pain in workers 40 to 65 years of age costs employers an estimated $7.4 billion/year.” The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons reports that a total of 186.7 million work days were lost in 2004 due to back pain. Such pain plays a major role in increasing health costs and reducing the quality of people's lives. It would appear, that as individuals spend more time in front of computers, the incidence of such back problems has increased. A 2008 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that healthcare expenditures related to spine problems in the United States totaled $89.5 billion in 2005, a 65% increase from expenditures in 1997.
The Mayo Clinic points to improper posture as one of the major causes of back pain in the workplace, and recommends proper posture while sitting as a step to prevent back pain and injury at work. Proper posture involves keeping both feet on the ground and knees level with hips. The lower back should be properly supported, and sitters should be upright and relaxed, neither slumping over nor arching their backs. While ergonomically designed chairs can help sitting posture, and individuals can work to train themselves to sit properly, most people tend to become lapse and have difficulty maintaining good habits.
One of the most common posture problems, called kyphosis, is a direct result of spending too much time in front of a computer, experts say. The shoulders hunch forward, the pectoral muscles in the chest tighten, the neck and head extend toward the computer screen, and the spine is no longer vertically aligned. Many deskbound office workers have started standing and walking in this position, too, says Andrea Cheville, a rehabilitation physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. To counteract kyphosis, it is important to stretch the pectoral muscles and strengthen the trapezius muscles in the upper back, which hold the shoulder blades back, Dr. Cheville said. Remembering to keep the ears and head over the shoulders, and not jutting forward, is also important.
Posture is “probably the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to health and wellness,” says Allston Stubbs, an orthopedic surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C., who treats patients with back or joint pain. “We see the spine and overall skeletal structure being critical to a patient's functionality and their satisfaction with their life and health care.” Billions of dollars are being spent by government, companies and individuals on functional health problems that are all too frequently a result of simple poor posture at work. And tens of millions of people are forced to suffer pain in their everyday lives, pain that might have been avoided with proper working posture. Yet the prior attempts at helping resolve this problem have fallen short. There are many “ergonomic” chairs that help support a user's back, but these are premised on older ways of working, such as sitting back in a chair and speaking on the phone. In fact, in the digital age workers are leaning forward to view a screen, and back support is not really helpful, since when leaning forward a worker's back is not in contact with the chair.
As mentioned above, typical prior art for ergonomic workstations is in the form of a chair. This type of prior art chair has a back support that follows the contour of the natural curvature of the spine but the user is required to sit with his back against the back support for the entire spine to be supported. However, when a user is sitting and working at a desk, the user often leans forward towards the desk, slouches and not utilizes the back support of the chair for support. By leaning forward or slouching, users risk straining the piriformis muscle and sciatic nerve, the two main causes of pain in the lower back and buttocks. Sciatica and “piriformis syndrome,” neuromuscular disorders that cause pain, tingling and numbing in the buttocks that extend down the leg, are the main causes for ergonomic-related worker absenteeism. According to the Mayo Clinic, slouching exaggerates a back's natural curves, which can lead to muscle fatigue and injury. Leaning forward, particularly under stress for long periods of time, strains muscles.
Other prior art that attempts to provide posture support when a user leans forward also takes the form of a chair. Instead of a back support, a front support is provided at the front of the chair. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,619,747, 4,832,407, and 3,754,787. In order for such chair to provide proper support, the user must straddle the chair and sit with his chest against the front support. The requirement to straddle such prior art chair is inconvenient for some users and may be difficult for users with mobility issues, as well as challenging for female users, who make up a large percentage of the computer-working population.
One major disadvantage of the prior art chairs is that they are typically configured to be “one size fit all.” While certain adjustments can be made to customize prior art chairs (e.g. tilt of a chair seat, reclining angle of a chair back support, seat height adjustment, etc.), it typically has a limited range of adjustments.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved portable posture support system that addresses the work-posture problem for all users from the front, not the back, while a user is at a desk that is convenient to use and convenient for the user to ensure proper posture while seated.